QE32 – the fall of Wall Street and the rise of Barack Obama
The Quarterly Essay series from Black Inc covers some interesting topics. But the essays date very quickly, this one more than most. Written almost as a diary of 2008, Kate Jennings charts, as the title suggests, the gathering global financial crisis and the US presidential election.
I wouldn’t go as far as the back cover descriptions of ‘dazzling, perceptive, acute and evocative’, but it is well-written. The US Presidential campaign material held little interest for me, as the election is over and we all know who won. The financial crisis material is much more interesting and I think will remain so, because we still don’t know how it ends. It certainly provides better coverage and explanation of aspects of the financial crisis than did the Australian media at the time. I’d be interested to skim it again in a year’s time to see if the events of 2008, as observed at the time, look the same from a greater distance.
In short, you might read it and find it interesting if you have a spare hour or two with nothing better to do, but no need to rush out and buy it.
NB: I didn’t read the second section (responses to the previous essay by Tim Flannery), because I haven’t read the previous essay, and I have a querulous relationship with Tim Flannery’s writings in any case.
American Revolution: the fall of Wall Street and the rise of Barack Obama
Quarterly Essay 32
Kate Jennings
Black Inc
